Captain Eo To Close (Most Likely Due To Hooter’s Ineptitude)

On Friday morning an Epcot guest broke the Disney internet in half by tweeting a picture of a poster outside the attraction Captain Eo. The poster boasted the 3D movie’s Farwell Mission on December 6th and bidding guests to See them change the world one last time”.

The poster was taken down soon after and there was no comment made as to the posting. But Disney has now confirmed that the Michael Jackson led Captain Eo will be closing on December 6th to make way for the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival…

Captain Eo debuted back in 1986, uniting the entertainment juggernauts of Disney, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Michael Jackson. Using cutting edge fx, in theatre 4D effects and two original songs by the King Of Pop to tell the story of a ragtag group of space rangers who go on a dangerous mission to bring a gift to an evil Supreme Leader, Captain Eo held it’s spot near the Imagination Pavillion until it was replaced by Honey I Shrunnk The Audience in 1996.

But after the death of Michael Jackson in 2009 Disney brought Eo back for a limited engagement thats lasted for the past five years. While showing it’s age, Eo still has it’s charms and delivers a dated fun that fits in well with the retrofuturisticness of Epcot’s Future World. Captain Eo has bowed off the stage a couple times over the past year to allow for special sneek peeks of the films Tomorrowland and Inside-Out. So while details are sparse about just what’s coming into the Magic Eye Theatre the announced Disney & Pixar Short Film Fest, it’s safe to assume we’ll see some behind the scenes footage and a couple of the short films that tend to accompany the bigscreen Pixar releases.

As good as it is to get fresh attractions into a park or land, this does feel like a placeholder, something that Disney can throw in to freshen it up with little overhead. In a post-New Fantasyland, pre-Avatar: The World of Pandora/Toy Story Land/Star Wars Land world, Epcot is going to need more than a fresh coat of paint and some plug in attractions.

Events like the Food And Wine, and Flower And Garden Festival draw people in to the park and Test Track and Soarin’ give them something to do between eating, but as Soarin’ prepares to go down for a renovation there’s going to be less there to eat capacity, pushing Epcot into a strange growing pain that I don’t think it was ready fir. What’s to come? Well maybe Captain Eo again in another 14 years.